Calgary Luxury Home Sales Fall in May, Boost Apartment Average Price

The slowdown in Calgary’s high-end market extended into May as sales for both the month and YTD remained below 2014, 2013 & 2012 levels.

A total of 65 homes sold for a million dollars or more in May compared to 94 the previous year. The -30.9% drop in luxury sales is roughly on par with the -25.5% decline in sales for the overall Calgary market.

Elbow Park/Glencoe and Altadore/River Park each had 5 sales, followed by Hillhurst and Parkhill/Stanley Park with 4 a piece.

The two most expensive sales were apartments: a unit at The River sold for $3,769,500 and one at the Waterfront for $2,990,900.

Apartment Prices in May

In total, four luxury units sold:

$3,769,500

$2,990,900

$1,210,000

$1,200,000

This is noteworthy because the Apartment category posted an average price increase of 4.02% y/y while the benchmark, median and Index all showed declines.

Without the above 4 sales, the Apartment average price for May 2015 would have been only $306,400 instead of $328,531.

Only 1 luxury apartment sold in May 2014. Removing that sale would have resulted in the average price only moderately declining to $314,101 from $315,845. Using these adjusted figures, the average price for apartments fell -2.5% y/y which is more inline with what the other metrics are showing.

It’s a good reminder about how finicky the average price is and how easily it can be skewed with just a handful of high (or low) sales.